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FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

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Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#21

Post by tptacek »

vessenes wrote: post #16

FBI + Client Attorney present + University's data scrub + nothing on the public docket likely means FISA court, which is in theory reserved for espionage and terrorism in the US. Most University cryptographic research happens in public these days, so I have a hard time imagining a sequence of events strictly bounded by cryptography research + chinese origin that yields FISA court motions. The real thing to say here i…

No? FISA isn't an adversarial court that hears espionage cases; it exists solely to handle applications for surveillance. Espionage and national security cases are handled by ordinary federal courts.

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#22

Post by [deleted] »

bigfatkitten wrote: post #17
whatshisface wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spies don't get "vanished," at least not historically. They're caught, imprisoned and tried in huge public media-heavy trials. The USSR even did huge public trials for American spies, because there's no incentive to forgo the nationalist boost to public opinion when collaborators would be aware of the disappearance either way.

Media-heavy espionage cases are the exception, not the norm. "Diplomats" routinely get declared persona non grata and just put on the next plane home. Neither the U.S. nor the other country wants to make a fuss.

[deleted]

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#23

Post by packetlost »

hypeatei wrote: post #14
packetlost wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The university would likely not have scrubbed them from their site if they were merely being deported. There are either espionage concerns or this guy solved prime factorization.

I think both things can be true: this involves espionage and the FBI collected what it needed then "disappeared" them.

I wouldn't discount deportation, but if the FBI is involved it's more likely they would detain them, especially if the charges are espionage. The reality is we don't know what's going on and it would be even weirder if information does not come to light sooner or later.

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#24

Post by perihelions »

- "None of this is in any way normal," Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography at Johns Hopkins University, wrote on Mastodon. He continued: "Has anyone been in contact? I hear he’s been missing for two weeks and his students can’t reach him. How does this not get noticed for two weeks???"

Prof. Green also posted about the vanishing of Prof. Wang here on HN the other day,

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43518196

(That's where I first heard of it). But HN is an increasingly difficult place to discover such stories, what with the systematic flagging brigades.

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#25

Post by refulgentis »

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-details-on-situati...

Exclusive with more info on the timeline, but nothing substantive enough to clarify entirely.

TL;DR: Professor was placed on leave which was announced to colleagues around 3/14.

"What’s still unclear is whether the University investigation lead to the federal law enforcement actions or whether early stages of a federal law enforcement investigation led the University to place Wang on leave and take these other actions. What’s clear though, according to my information, is that the law enforcement searches two days ago did not lead to Wang being placed on leave."

"One additional detail, it’s not clear that Wang has been fired. That was not what colleagues were told in mid-March and there does not appear to have been any update on that front to the contrary to colleagues."

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#26

Post by TechDebtDevin »

whatshisface wrote: post #10
tptacek wrote: post #5

The fact pattern doesn't fit well with ICE, because Indiana University cooperated with the investigation (and struck him and his wife from their pages). The track record of espionage investigations against people of Chinese origin is not great, so it's not a defense of this investigation to say that that the details rhyme with that rather than immigration.

Spies don't get "vanished," at least not historically. They're caught, imprisoned and tried in huge public media-heavy trials. The USSR even did huge public trials for American spies, because there's no incentive to forgo the nationalist boost to public opinion when collaborators would be aware of the disappearance either way.

Maybe the Chinese disapprared him brcause his cover was blown :/ The Chinese are alleged to havr their own secret police in the United States keeping tabs on important citizens..

An expert in cryptography seems like someone theyd be keeping tabs on if they really do this.

Just spit balling here and dont mean to accuse the guy of anything.

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#27

Post by raverbashing »

packetlost wrote: post #6
hypeatei wrote: post #4

[flagged]

The university would likely not have scrubbed them from their site if they were merely being deported. There are either espionage concerns or this guy solved prime factorization.

TBH I don't think there's anyone to deport in this case anymore

(And prime factorization has been cracked already ;) it's factorization of composite numbers that's a pain)

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#28

Post by nurettin »

whatshisface wrote: post #10
tptacek wrote: post #5

The fact pattern doesn't fit well with ICE, because Indiana University cooperated with the investigation (and struck him and his wife from their pages). The track record of espionage investigations against people of Chinese origin is not great, so it's not a defense of this investigation to say that that the details rhyme with that rather than immigration.

Spies don't get "vanished," at least not historically. They're caught, imprisoned and tried in huge public media-heavy trials. The USSR even did huge public trials for American spies, because there's no incentive to forgo the nationalist boost to public opinion when collaborators would be aware of the disappearance either way.

A lot of "spies" seem to be falling off the window/balcony /stairs lately.
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